Clarity

Are you one of those lucky people that have too many job opportunities? For your career to thrive you need to make the right job choice. Let master career coach, Unre Visagie, show you how to make the right job choice.

Slide 1 (The solution to grab new exciting challenges of your choice)

We are looking at people that say, they have too many choices, and how do they choose? When we all work and invest together for the benefit of everybody, we will get more benefits. The key thing is to do first for others. When making these choices in your own best interest there is a solution where you can look at the exciting challenges and the great returns you can have from making your choices. You have to know what you currently do for whom. Why did you get into the position where you have all these choices?

You prepare and communicate to influencers. You engage and communicate the work that you enjoy doing and that is valued. Recently, with John, who had a fantastic position, it was very clear that if he keeps on doing the same he will have less than he can have. Referring back to Einstein’s old saying that if you keep on doing the same thing expecting different results it may be close to insanity. It is something to keep in mind.

Slide 2 (Know what you currently do for whom)

Let’s look at people who have too many choices and have the perception that it’s difficult to exercise just one choice and lose the others. When you make the right choice it becomes clear that there’s no doubt. You don’t have any feeling of loss, you move from those perceptions, because they are just perceptions, to the great spaces where you know exactly why you’ve made the choice and what you expect back. You can communicate clarity to everyone around you.

You have to know what you currently do for whom. Why is it so valuable that you have all these choices? Let’s look at simple ways to understand and discuss what you say no to and what you say yes to. That is where a man with a plan has all the benefits. ‘No’ is probably one of the more profitable words in the English language, as mentioned by Jack Welsh. When I sat with John and said, “Ok, let’s look at what you say no to” it was great stress because he didn’t want to say no to anything. What do you say yes to? What are the consequences when you say yes to certain things? Yes often means a three year commitment and where are you going to be in three years? You can never quite control it but at least you can make the best choice with your current insight.

Slide 3 (Prepare to communicate to the influencers)

Let’s look at those choices. When moving from the perceived boxes to the great spaces you have to prepare to communicate to the influencers. How do you prepare? You discuss it with people around you. You can start right now. It’s amazing what the people around you know. When John discussed it with people around him, including some of his clients in big mining companies and clients in big IT companies they collaborated with, he was amazed to find that his choices were even more than he was aware. However, they also helped him to understand the future of the industry, the future of the consequences of his choices with much greater clarity, factual and grounded in reality. When John practiced, he could approach the company he wanted, that didn’t even have a job at that time. He should have the job shortly, in January or February.

Slide 4 (Engage and communicate)

Lastly, John engaged with his clear, prepared stories. A man with a plan is welcome everywhere, a man without a plan people usually leave alone to figure himself out, they’re just kind to you, it’s not as rude as some people think. He approached companies with his clear, practised plan and showed respect and acknowledgement to the people he recognized as leaders in the broad industry, whom he could see was on the fast track. Why are they on the fast track? Learn from them. They guided him and introduced him to the right people that can give him the job. It’s a very straightforward process but people need that clarity.

Slide 5 (Start with the purpose, the why)

You need clarity of purpose, with objectives and tasks, dynamically calibrated with your own long-term career vision and mission. This helps you to align with the company’s long-term vision and you’re seen as a strategic contributor, which further puts you up the ladder. We find this is a very important process, like in John’s case, he really couldn’t answer this three months ago, now he can tell you in one minute.

Slide 6 (The right change thinking discussion)

This is the second tool amongst the list of templates we use that you can re-use with your friends, because they are free on the web. There are rules in every company, every industry, every client environment; every team has its subculture of rules. Understand those rules, influence them perhaps slowly, but don’t waste your time fighting and being angry. John was very unhappy with his current company because he could see he contributed more, but their compensation structure didn’t allow for him to earn more, so their rules made John earn less.

It turns out that he can influence the rules, we prepared him to influence the rules in the meantime, to say that I am experiencing stress, but show that I care, show that I respect, how do we go forward? He then proceeded anyway, without the rules being changed, he didn’t waste time, he played where he can make decisions. He played where he has influence and it’s known, he started contributing more and communicating better. He’s moving his line to where more becomes known to him, so his space for production grows and he’s now very much a strategic player. That is the other alternative, where his current company may treat him in a way where it will not be practical for him to leave. At least he has all these choices.

Slide 7 (The approach to engage people should be)

Let’s look at a simple way that you can use right now. John identified the people that he admired and why he admired them, he went to them with clear respect, recognition and acceptance. All of us love respect, recognition and acceptance. One of my favourite professors always said: “Applause, applause, anything for applause!” Everybody is a sucker for that. Use it, but be genuine, if you go with false thank yous you will have problems. When you have a plan, you’ve done your homework, you’ve talked to people around you, you’ve prepared, then you approach the people with open and closed questions. All of this detail is available free on the website; use it. The reason we made it free is that you need these tools to talk to people around you, it’s critical that you can freely engage the people around you. They can also watch the videos and do it free. We come into the game when we can accelerate you and add extra value. Let’s look at the website quickly. There are specific, measurable, accountable resources, time and rewards.

Slide 8 (careerdevelopmentplan.net)

When you look at the website, you will see the tools and the resources. We have organized each block of tools on the website to focus on a specific area of a stress or growth opportunity. When you look at your career choices, we go to Career Planning and Performance. To demonstrate the free tools that is available which John also used in his coaching. We’ve bundled them into big, logical groups where you can look at various career level changes, resumes and the smart goal setting, which I want to point out specifically. You must have specific, measurable, accountable resources time and monitor, planning, performance etc. Every aspect is organized into groups like this. When we look at approaching people with open and closed questions, it is part of that group of tools.

Slide 9 (I have too many choices, how do I choose?)

Having too many choices, how do I choose? Let us summarize the whole process. People normally have perceptions of difficulty of choice and the solution is: get more information, talk to more people, get clarity and get rid of any fears and uncertainties. Fear just stands for False Evidence Appearing Real. Fail just stands for First Attempt in Learning. Everything that we have learnt we learnt through trial and sometimes losing some skin in trying to ride a bicycle. It never stops, but as we go higher, we get more concerned about what people will think. We get more worried about coming across as someone who doesn’t know what he’s doing. The process is simple and clear and it avoids most of those risks.

The process is: know what you do, prepare to communicate what you do, engage influencers and communicate to them. I find very few people can tell you their store of assets and their expertise. In John’s case, his top skill is probably that he has a very good interface, people enjoy being around him, that is a core skill for him. He was very uncomfortable to put that in his CV, so we got nice examples, now it’s in his CV. The other thing that he had difficulty with was his golden thread.

The golden thread leading to your key to success is simply where John made decisions in the same direction from a very young age. A service to people, a great curiosity to understand things, that’s what’s been driving him since school days. He never realized that he could put in his CV that he’s been consistent in how he made decisions. He had quite a few job changes, that is why we had to show consistency with the golden thread, this is built into the stories on the site. He had an awesome asset list that only became clear when he talked to clients, colleagues and friends. This caused him some discomfort, but he now has a very powerful story to tell around his CV.

He realized his external resources, the number of people who were prepared to help him and introduce him, introduce him to people who can introduce him, all of that and learning some skills that he now requires knowing where he wants to go. It’s all available, he just had to have a plan and engage. He’s building his own staircase and climbing it, which could be scary, but we explained that fear and risk could be managed.

Start with exploring, preparing, engaging and in the process you will grow like John did. Your job, company and industry must align while growing your asset list. Secondly, you must align your job, work and career. You are continuously in charge of your future; you keep on doing preparation, exploration and engagement. You will always be secure and safe, and a desired employee. You will get huge increases, like John, in a time when nobody around you will get increases. John ended up with insight, knowledge and confidence because he had a plan and a clear story. John moved from the perceived boxes and too many choices and uncertainty to absolute certainty about where he’s going next, how he’s going to use and grow his asset list.

Slide 10 (Business toolset, personal toolset)

Having too many choices and choosing comes to down the business toolset and the personal toolset that I’ve shown you on the website. Please watch out for the next Career Maker System email. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and I hope you will realize the privilege of having too many choices deserve that you go and explore, prepare and engage these choices to get absolute clarity about the one that will work best for you. Thank you for listening.

The Career Builder System Applied With Careerdevelopmentplan

Career development plan as the project managers for sustainable community capacity development. The Career Builder System is being used to in their projects to enable people to get access to work.

Careerdevelopmentplan.net offers the foolproof Career Builder System, where people move from their perceived career boxes that are all mind-based and self-made. They move easily, safely, smoothly, to having great careers of their choice and growing their list of skills and what they can add to the world. We look at career choice, access and ongoing growth. Career change, career growth and career choice can be a very exciting experience.

The Career Builder System makes it clear and easy. This is the secure and safe way towards your ideal work, career, job, company and even more. The process is also on the web, as you learn it you can take it to people around you basically free. You can determine where they want to join and understand their own direction, their own measurements, and their own solutions. They participate in the program and help the people who deliver make a living.

Careerdevelopmentplan.net offers the model: Towards my ideal job. At any stage of life, from primary school all the way to retirement and beyond. We find that the biggest obstacle is that people perceive career boxes, it’s like a glass plate, where they can see everything that can be, they see others have it and they don’t understand why it is not theirs as well. What careerdevelopmentplan.net’s product Career Maker does, it makes that box disappear by removing fears, the concept of failure and the perceived risks.

We find that people need clarity about their work in their job, their job in the company and their location. Everybody has a store, so do you. Your store needs to be identified, and we find people find it very tough to identify their own store. This is universal: professors, rich business people and the poorest of people. Everybody is created as great people; the difference is just their experiences, expertise, interest, aptitude and relationships, some of us at home get in bigger doses.

The resources you need are all out there. It’s all available, easily accessible, no problem at all if you know how to do it. In the process of moving from where you are to where you want to be, you make your own staircase and you climb it. Making and climbing at the same time could be a very scary thing; therefore we have made the process simple and clear. This process comes from Hewlett Packard where I worked, all the companies I’ve been involved in, that grew to multi-million dollar companies, coaching for many people afterward and much pro bono work at universities, schools, communities. The process is now very clear and simple.

It starts with exploring with the aim of identifying your real needs. Reassess the work you do, your job, the company and the industry you’re in, ensure that it suits you and align with your wishes. You then prepare this information in a very simple way with people around you and people you choose. You get your communication clear so you can engage the right people. In the process of going external to the resources you internalize the competencies, the knowledge, the insights; you grow your store all the time. Your assets grow in every action that we take in this process.

You will end having up your job, industry and company perfectly aligned to your needs, it’s not instant but it’s very simple to do, it may take 18 months to 3 years. You are in charge or your future and your career aims, to align them and to keep them aligned. You will get your career aims so clear, it’s almost like a beacon that you can put out there, that shines for you. This beacon must go out to the people around you; it must preferably go out on the web, where we include web reputation management.

You gain the insights, you gain the knowledge, and you gain absolute confidence because you are a man with a clear plan. A man with a clear plan grows without stopping, he is welcome everywhere, while people usually run away from a man that asks for help. Thus, you’ve moved and escaped from the perceived career box all the way across to an almost limitless world. This world is available and accessible to anybody that follows these steps with us. It doesn’t matter where you start from, if you have fewer assets in the beginning, it just takes a little longer.

We offer a process where you earn while you learn, so you can pay for this yourself all the way through. The process is an organized process where the career owner is in charge. The career builder, the career maker is in charge. There are detailed processes that we must keep ordered, and if these processes are not completed you simply loop back and do it again, while you acknowledge the learning and you help us with new groups. In the end you end up with practical work experience and you are ready to go to the workplace.

This is organized in four levels and four phases. It doesn’t matter how long you take at any one of these, you repeat it until you are successful and you know where you know, you know what you want, you can communicate what you want, and you are a man with a plan. In the process you have moved from the career box all the way through to a great place where careers become simple and straightforward with no perceived problems. If you look at the career box, it has definitely disappeared because it was perceived.

Once you have moved clearly you can see this move means you invest with others, it is an investment, and it is a commitment. People must be committed to their own future to complete this process.

In conclusion, the foolproof Career Maker System was developed and driven by Unre Visagie with many other people. The career box was broken and you move to a great space. With Prof. Japie Kroon we offer a community gap year with an approved program. It is linked to short courses that he developed specifically for this gap year process. You end up with a university level 6 short course certificate.

Explore the opportunity with Secoza.co.za. We offer community upliftment that goes home to people, into their schools and into their leaders. It‘s always supervised by their leaders. Let’s have a look at the process offered by them, by looking at this early stage actual brochure. They move from exposure to opportunities to earn and learn. They explain investors from scorecards; this is integrated in a very unique way which we have tested with Inala technologies, spending their money very effectively over time. The process took about 4, 5 years.

Other investors could be embassies which we have engaged with in the past, and we have several philanthropic people who are very happy to invest in a clear program. The investors are insured of great returns. Returns on their investment means more business and better employees, they can’t lose. It also means investment in community economic capacity growth which means their business can grow in the long-term. The return for investors is high, clear and now very safe.

The impact is very wide: we train the trainer, and from train the trainer the process keeps rolling at very low cost. There’s even matric bridging courses at under R1500 for the year. The school earns most of the 1500 and the people from Touching Africa and their offices they operate from, engineering offices, where they have resources to make sure this is on track.

With Prof. Japie from North-West who ensures the learning experience stays on track. And with Unre Visagie from business to ensure the business processes stays on track. As a team we were inspired from many years of tackling unnecessary divides and stratification in our communities. We cannot lose. The reasons for failure are articulated with the initial outcomes, and an industry accepted speech test and an ebio learning methodology supervised by Prof. Japie from North-West University.

Phase 2 gets them closer to work ready; they become a worker that acts as an owner. I have learnt these words from David Packard: “An army of owners”. This is from Hewlett-Packard in the late seventies. If you go onto Dave Packard’s site you will find those words; it’s what Hewlett Packard created. Your company will get an army of owners from us. It changes their attitude completely, where they are intrinsically in control of their own future, they realize that the door to success has a handle on the inside only.

Those glass plates just disappear, those perceived boxes are gone. They are in a great space. They master communication skills; they are clear about their industry, career, job and work. They have willingness; they absolutely have the skills to be highly employable. We have a long record with various government programs and companies, where our people stand out and win out as top performers. I really hope you will join us in this process, how can you possibly lose? I don’t see how.

Thank you very much, I hope you have enjoyed the story, and if you are interested in community upliftment programs, talk to Touching Africa. If you are interested in business programs, talk to Unre Visagie. We will work with Touching Arica and we used to work with Prof. Japie Kroon. A very effective process: earn while you learn is included for community gap years in your community at. Contact careerdevelopmentplan.net and we will work with Prof. Japie to deliver the community gap year. I thank you so much; I hope you enjoyed it as much as I enjoy bringing this to you. This program is a passion for me, I’m really retired, but I work 70 hours a week to help people break their career boxes, move into great spaces and I can’t think of anything else that I will enjoy more.

Craft your career change cover letter

A carefully crafted cover letter gets your resume noticed. A carefully crafted resume gets you the interview. Having your story straight, with examples, in the interview lands you the job.

It does not matter how old you are or if you little industry related skills. It is more about what work experience you bring with you. Scroll down to watch a video of Master Career Coach, Unre Visagie explain how to craft your career change cover letter.

The career change cover letter is meant to get you the job you’ve chosen at the company you’ve chosen, in the industry that you’ve chosen. We’ve found that if the cover letter is clear it demonstrates that the man has a plan and he is clear on the why and what about the industry, the company, the job and himself.

If this is clear then invariably people get hired and we even found that with this clarity people get jobs at companies where no jobs existed or was planned, because they see wow, this man is enthusiastic about my industry, my company, his job and himself. I have to have such a person in my company, I cannot let him pass. I know I don’t have a job right now, but I’m going to make one for him. This happens with about a hundred students a year under Prof. Kroon at the North-West University where we’ve been developing and running this program for seven years.

This happened after we used the process to build our companies. We’ve used it for the last ten years in our pro bono community work where we’ve empowered people to get jobs starting from nothing. Today young people with very bad home conditions and education are fully qualified mining engineers. The process truly works. It also works for several people we coach at a $100000 plus level that gets 30% increases in the jobs they want towards building their career; it’s always aimed at the long-term career.

If you look at a cover letter it’s you choosing the job, the work you want to do, choosing the company you want to do it in or with, and the industry you want to operate in. When you look at a company you must be very comfortable with the company’s clients. You must be comfortable with the way they serve clients and the way they approach clients.

If you then look at your career change cover letter, it must have a maximum of three paragraphs; it cannot be more than three paragraphs. You must state that you have a plan, that you are excited; it must contain facts about the job, the company and the industry. Job, company and industry always stay together. The second thing that your cover letter must show is that you have a clear thread in your past decision making, to actually get you to this point. The cover letter must then state any TRUST. Trust is about four elements: reliability, acceptance, openness and congruence and openness. It must be clear in your cover letter. To get it clear, be ready with factual stories, remembering that we are still a story-telling society.

The Power of Storytelling

I think we must add something about the power of good stories. A clear, good story has awesome power.

So what are the stories you require?

You require stories that show your manageability, stories that show your willingness to be involved, stories that show commitment, commitment to results, stories that show initiative. These are the things they interview for. They will ask you three sets of questions in the interview. They will ask open questions, for which you must have ready answers. They will ask you closed questions, for which you must have facts or one of these short stories.

Here is a link to Peter’s book “Tell to Win”:

Q: You must get ready for the interview in your cover letter?

A: Thank you, very importantly, I would advise that you have this clear because what I found is that this has a huge input in the words of the cover letter. The main reason for doing it at this time is to ensure that you are actually backing up your cover letter. This back-up gives you absolute confidence. The company may have a process of pre-screening: telephoning etc. If they call you and you are not ready, you’ve lost. We’ve worked through thousands of CV’s and interviews in our companies and if there is a lack of clarity it goes to the bin. The people who stated clearly in their cover letter why they wanted to work for our company in our industry they got an interview without exception.

Q: These stories, are they supposed to be long? How would they look in the cover letter? Are they paragraph stories?

A: No, the stories don’t get into your cover letter. The cover letter gives a strong indication that you have the stories. The words in your cover letter reflect your confidence, that’s why you must gain the confidence. That’s why you must get your stories ready. Written is better, but if you are like me writing is not always easy. Keep your stories ready.

If your stories are ready and you can tell me why the job, why the company, why the industry and why you, I’ve hardly ever seen anybody fail to even create a job where none existed. That is the power of a well-constructed cover letter. Getting somebody to craft you a clever letter which is not your words is a very dangerous thing. We can assist you, or many other coaches can assist you to help you find your words. On the website you will find further techniques to help you get your words.

Secondly, what I find people have great difficulty with is that most of us can’t talk about ourselves, we get totally stuck, so I find that you’ve got to have a soundboard, somebody you trust that is able and capable. In recent examples for instance, the best soundboard we found for a guy that’s earning $140000 was one of his clients. Why would a client help him? It’s a simple technique, to go and say thank you to the client, and to say wow, it’s really great what you are doing and I want to ask you a weird question today. What do you think I do differently, what do you think my next career should be.

What does that show to the client that you approach? That you recognize him, he’s a significant person and you really respect and accept him. When you approach people for advice and input, those three things are the most important. Significance, recognition, acceptance and respect are the most powerful approach to humans. Hardly anybody can say no to that. When we get the younger or older people that we coach to get into companies and jobs that didn’t even exist, this is one of the things we prepare them with. To approach with the right approach, only you can help me because you are so great. That comes back to gratefulness. When you approach the person you’ve got to be extremely clear on what you want.

Q: Why would I approach a client and ask them how am I different? How does that relate back to the cover letter?

A: It is for you to understand and communicate your possible contribution, your unique approach, why you are a valuable addition. It’s very hard to find this by yourself. It’s a bit like a brain surgeon doing brain surgery on himself; not a good idea. And very often, constructing your own stuff is like doing brain surgery on yourself.

Q: And specifically in a career change situation? You’ve got to now indicate what your skills are, because you bring a skill set, it’s not like your bringing industry knowledge as such, because you’re making a career change. But you bring who you are to the company.

A: Then you find an advisor in that industry, the one that you want to change to, that is how you engage in the industry. Be clear about the how and what. The how and what process must be applied to every phase. Your cover letter must show why you are excited. How are you going to show it if you don’t engage people in the industry, read the magazines, go to some trade shows? You may even meet your next employer at a trade show.

Q: And the reason you want to spend this amount of time on your cover letter is that your cover letter gets your CV into the interview bundle?

A: Yes, you’ve got to get your CV out of a huge pile into a shortlist, survive the shortlist and then get into an interview.

You have to spend time on this. Otherwise you will appear like everyone else. You are going to keep on begging and pleading, and no-one will understand you. They want to help you, but you don’t allow them to. That is why we say the door to success has a handle on the inside. This process of having clarity on the how and what of each element we call the golden key to success. It’s your golden key. To craft the key, to make the key is effort, but it’s the rest of your life. And today is the first day of the rest of your life. Can you put too much effort into this? I don’t think so.

We find that people with this clarity are very successful in our second process, where once you have done this, we can assist you to get into companies that don’t even advertise for a job. If you want to really join accompany and you are clear on this, there’s a process whereby you hook yourself in. You go with respect, you go with knowledge, you go with enthusiasm you are irresistible, and you have it in you. I haven’t met a person that doesn’t have it in him.

We have coached many people from all walks of life through midlife career changes in different companies and in our personal career coaching practice. Eventually we came to a standard template that works for most people thinking of changing careers.

The key issue we found is that many people think they are their jobs. When asked them who they are and most people answered I am a “Doctor”, I am an “IT Professional”, or “I am a Teacher” they in some way link their person to their job or their last qualification.

The specific work you feel you can do the best or want to do the best defines who you are. For example, a project manager answered I am an accountant 20 years ago.

During a midlife career change, it is critical that you know what kind of work you want to do more of and what kind of work you want to do less of.

Exploring what you want to do less of and more of in your new career

If you are clear on exactly what you want, it becomes easy to communicate your “Career Change Message” to the right place and the right people. With a clear message, you can make smooth transition in a midlife career change. You have years of work experience and abilities and these skills are worth much to companies. Even though your current work experience might not overlap 100% with your new direction, your skills and workplace experience is still worth gold.

If you are planning a midlife career change, it is very important to get the exact job you want in the precise industry of your choice and in the geographical area, you want to work. The chances that you will make a major career change again later in your life are small, which makes the career change choices you make now incredibly important.

Remember you are the only steward of your work life, what you do and what you earn. No one else really cares.

Let us begin to get clarity on your mid life career change

First, let me ask you a very important question.

Do you believe you have a choice? It is extremely important you absolutely believe you have choices, be confident in yourself and your life experience. To make a midlife career change is a major move; you need to get your mind in the right place. Your confidence will shine though in everything you do from here on forward.

We truly live in the best time ever in access to knowledge, communication and travel resources.

Now let us follow a process to gain that critical clarity in your communication on the industry and the work you want. Clarity is vital in middle-life career changes.

Which industry do you enjoy working in? Identify the products, services, development, people and the contribution you will make. Be sufficiently clear and be ready to adapt your message with input from others in friends, family and colleagues. Once you are clear on where you want to go, you must clearly communicate how the company, division, team, suppliers and clients you want to join and serve will benefit.

Communicate your message to people you know and ask them to send it to people they know. Identify and engage key people in the company, team of division you want to join. Be clear how the company, division, suppliers and clients will benefit.

Be visible and get involved, engage in the places and work you want to do.

About career change and resumes

Too many people hope their resumes will find work for them. Your resume is important, but it is much more important to be clear on what you want. Before you start writing your resume, get your story straight, know what kind of work you want and be 100% sure in which industry you want to work.

Notes for midlife career changers:

Be flexible on starting salary and expectations of compensation for work done.

Communicate the work you did before, during and after the tasks above.

Useful tools for career changes:

Do a sweep of what you know and who you know.

Do a sweep of what is in your diary that does not belong there and say no to the things that does not move you forward.

Learn the skills to effectively manage a business or team meeting for greater results!

It is all about the meeting’s purpose and outcomes

With out the clarity you should simply say no! Learn how to say by signing up for the Career Maker system on this site.

Business meetings need clarity, outcomes and purpose - else say NO!

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How to manage a business or team meeting

Plan the meeting

Talk about and listen

Proud of session

Vision and mission

Action road forward and direction

Further engagement

Techniques to increase value flow

How to manage a meeting

Plan the meeting

Keep the time and logistics in mind. Structure the meeting and keep the process of organizing in line to achieve the desired outcome / outcomes.

Choose a congenial place and time for all individuals involved in the meeting.

Who can contribute to the meeting with the best benefit and fit for the specific scenario and goal of the meeting? If you wish to take another person with to the meeting, decide on someone that will fit and cause stacking. Stacking means there is more than one direct benefit to more than one individual or entity involved.

Clarify the objective: what do all those involved hope to get out the meeting? Ensure that the expectations of all those involved are shared and calibrated with one another.

How to talk about & listen during the meeting

Listen in a structured manner

Share in a structured manner

Use the Carnegie method of opening or re-starting a conversation when you get stuck during the meeting:

In your mind walk down the street in which the person you are conversing with lives, see the brass plate next to the front door: ask questions about where the individual lives or where they lived.

Now walk into the house in your mind’s eye: talk about and ask about what you see on the walls, like photographs, pictures, paintings, ornaments and so on.

On top of the house, there is an airplane: where has this person traveled or where do they wish to travel.

On top of the airplane is a hobbyhorse: what type of hobbies do they practice and what other interests do they have.

On top of the plane, on top of the hobbyhorse sits grandma knitting: where does his/her family come from and what are they engaged in.

Identify the feelings, positive or negative, driving the other individuals in the meeting.

Positive and negative feelings

We are driven by what we desire.

This desire is driven as much by positive feelings as it is driven by what we do not want.

Humans appear to be more capable of stating what they do not want than what they do want. We seem to struggle with stating our observations about these negative feelings, the things we do not want.

The Issue is

Continually ask yourself: “It will be right when?”. Use The Issue Is model to assist in creating clarity.

Part of sharing in a structured manner is to be able to lead the other individuals on discovering when something will be right.

Statements like “The real issue is…” and “When will this be right…?” is typical of this type of conversation.

Rapport and Reflection

Build rapport by using encouraging body language and activator statements.

Reflect and mirror the other person’s statements to ensure you understand what is being said or asked. For example if someone makes a statement like: “You must remember to complete the letter.” You would then mirror that statement ensuring you understood the other person: “You would like me to complete the letter to John as we discussed previously, would you like me to mail it as well or do you want to read it first?.” This ensures there are no misunderstandings and possible challenging situations.

Allow the other person to complete what they want to say. Build rapport by using statements like, “Tell me more”, “Wow really!?”, “Is it really like that?”, “They do that?” etc.

Open or re-start a conversation using the Carnegie model above (see the book by Dale Carnegie: Winning friends and Influencing people for more resources).

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There is basic “stuff” any person on earth feel comfortable talking about. This includes subjects like family, hobbies, travel, interest, art, music and many more such subjects. When a conversation comes to a place where the other person or people are low on energy, in other words they are struggling to communicate with you, use the Carnegie method to re-start the conversation. This process can also be used to start a conversation.

What are the other person/people proud of?

Make the other person feel important

What are the other person/people proud of in home, career, business and relations?

What does he/she believe in?

Religious statements are taboo. When treading in the realm of personal belief, leave the other person to talk, you just listen without reacting. Be aware of making controversial statements or attacking the others’ statements. Use these methods to get the most out of a meeting; do not allow emotional reactions to sabotage the purpose of the meeting.

Where does the other spend most of their time?

What is on their minds? Things, places and people they have on their minds the most. Such information can be helpful in framing a meeting. Be really interested without probing.

Structure the vision & mission during a meeting

Structure and frame the exploration of the meeting

Keep the identified goal in mind

What are the other people about?

Where are they going in life?

What do they wish to achieve?

What are their dreams and aspirations?

When engaging in a vision / mission type conversations remember and share stories where applicable. It could make for very interesting conversation. Be careful to never attack another person’s beliefs. Some examples include:

Gandhi was about dignity and he ended with freedom.

Gandhi wanted dignity for his people. He achieved freedom; do the people now have dignity?

Madiba was also about dignity and we now have democracy.

Madiba also wanted the people to have dignity in being productive. The people now have the vote. Does having the vote bring about dignity?

Kennedy caused the USA to believe they are a super race, which caused Vietnam.

Kennedy made America invincible by putting the first man on the moon. America believed they could not lose in Vietnam.

These are strong examples to use, but if you do not understand the purpose of a meeting, the outcome for your company, project or personally might be the same!

Action road forward and direction

Ask and answer questions like:

Where will you be?

What will you do?

For whom will you do it?

What will the result be?

What is the direction we want to go according to the information gathered from the meeting? What alternatives do we have? Develop alternatives using methods like “Asking questions”, “Strawmen” and Edward de Bono’s PO “.

Ask questions like:

“What else?”

“Together with?”

Strawmen:

One can create it and then burn it, no emotions or structure attached to it. Facilitate out of the box thinking.

One is able to develop new ideas without having to defend; there is nothing to defend because it is a Strawmen.

Edward de Bono’s PO works in the same manner. One asks the question: “What is PO?” PO is nothing; it can thus be anything one wants it to be. It belongs to nobody and means nothing so PO can be anything you want it to be; again without having to defend it.

Orders first or missionary

If the project must have orders to sustain it then how does one go about getting orders?

If the project is missionary, it is an organization or individuals personal passion, who provides the resources?

Further engagement

A Venn diagram gives a graphic representation of the different stakeholders involved in the possible project. There where the overlap between the areas exists is where you can test the possibility of further engagement and value-add.

Have clear next actions .

What is the time and place for what needs to happen next?

What other people must be involved?

Which resource needs to be added or identified?

What is the desired outcome of further engagement or of the actions decided upon in the meeting?

Techniques to increase value flow

Each technique you make yours will serve you for life.

Continuously add value using these techniques.

Grow and diversify communication skills .

Mature listening skills

Practiced questioning skills

Use and learn old techniques like “Feel Felt Found” to associate with and learn from.

We have found that being a career builder one face very much the same risks as when starting a small business. Some of the most compelling risks when starting a small business include:

The maturity of the concept used when starting a small business

The strength of the team starting a small business

Supply chain maturity and stability

The network supporting one in starting a small business

Certainty and clarity on the distribution channel

Proven demand from an identified end client

Are emotional hooks on the end client, suppliers and the support channel in place in place?

Does the purposed concept fit with the end clients’ expectations?

We have built many businesses and hope to bring this knowledge to a global audience of career builders. We are currently in the process of packaging this knowledge to fit the needs of a career builder. This knowledge will also be of great value to small business owners. We will keep our visitors up to date via our RSS feed and ezine.

For more on the risks of a business please visit:

The risks of business on Alephsynergy.com

The stages of growth in an entrepreneurial company (W&T guide)

We will keep you updated via our RSS feed.

Building a career is similar to starting a small business

I Advise

We have found that being a career builder one face very much the same risks as when starting a small business.

Some of the most compelling risks when starting a small business include:

The maturity of the concept used when starting a small business.

The strength of the team starting a small business.

Supply chain maturity and stability.

The network supporting one in starting a small business.

Certainty and clarity on the distribution channel.

Proven demand from an identified end client.

Are emotional hooks on the end client, suppliers and the support channel in place?

Does the proposed concept fit with the end clients’ expectations?

We have built many businesses and hope to bring this knowledge to a global audience of career builders. We are currently in the process of packaging this knowledge to fit the needs of a career builder. This knowledge will also be of great value to small business owners.

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Llewelyn VenterCurrent Professional Coaching Student

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